Volpe will soon make a new software tool available to the public that can assist transportation professionals in conducting hazard analyses.

The Safety Hazard Analysis Tool (SafetyHAT) is a software tool that facilitates the System Theoretic Process Analysis (STPA). STPA is a hazard identification method based on a top-down system engineering approach and control systems theory. It provides an algorithmic and well-guided analysis process that identifies the causes of system hazards, including hardware component failures, software errors, complex system interactions, human errors, and inadequate organization management, policy, and procedures.

The output of STPA and SafetyHAT is a list of identified causes of hazards that can be used to:

• Develop safety requirements and testing scenarios
• Initiate risk analysis, risk control, and system assessment activities
• Design and assess safety solutions

The primary goal of SafetyHAT is to help safety analysts become proficient with the STPA method. SafetyHAT achieves this goal by doing the following:

1. Guiding analysts through the preparatory and analysis steps of STPA with a streamlined data entry process. It uses a wizard-like format, with preloaded transportation-specific guidewords, that can be customized for other domains.
2. Leveraging the power of a relational database to organize and manage the large quantity of data that the analysis may produce.
3. Facilitating the documentation of hazard analysis and providing traceability from system-level hazards to component-level causal factors, generating auditable documentation.

SafetyHAT will be released to the public in late March, at which time the software will be downloadable for free from the Volpe website.